Hovering over the presentations was the awareness that three of the most influential figures in bluegrass — all North Carolinians — had died within the past year: Andy Griffith (who showcased bluegrass music on his wildly popular The Andy Griffith Show), banjo master Earl Scruggs and legendary guitarist Doc Watson.

Roland White, as a member of the Country Boys (later the Kentucky Colonels), appeared twice on Griffith’s show in 1961. He told the crowd that Griffith subsequently asked his band to back him on an album for Capitol Records.

“We were just a bunch of kids,” he said. “But Andy made us feel so much better.”

The show concluded with an all-star tribute to Scruggs, while Watson was honored as the IBMA’s guitarist of the year.

Other winners of note were Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers, who copped the emerging artist award, and Dale Ann Bradley and Russell Moore, cited as the top female and male vocalists.

McCoury, Lewis, J.D. Crowe, Bobby Hicks, Jerry McCoury and Bobby Osborne — dubbed “the Masters of Bluegrass” for the occasion — opened the show with the standard “I’ve Lost You.”

Then Lewis, Tom Rozum and Bryan Sutton tipped their hats to Doc Watson by singing the mournful song he wrote with his wife Rosalie, “Your Long Journey.”

Grand Ole Opry star Pam Tillis joined Dale Ann Bradley and her band to sing “Somewhere South of Crazy,” a song Tillis and Bradley co-wrote.

The Gibson Brothers turned in one of the most affecting performance with “We Called It Music,” which harkened back to a time before music became subdivided.

Speeding the proceedings along — and making them far more intimate — was the fact that the stage was uncurtained for most of the show.

As awards were being handed out and acceptance speeches made, the audience could watch stage hands rearranging microphones and see bands walk out and take their places before they were formally introduced.

As suited the ecumenical spirit of the evening, several of the acts “bluegrassed” country and pop songs.

And Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out matched the intensity of the original with their cover of Jo-El Sonnier’s 1989 effort, “If Your Heart Should Ever Roll This Way Again.”

WSM-AM/Nashville disc jockey Eddie Stubbs inducted Doyle Lawson into the IBMA Hall of Fame, reciting his achievements as a journeyman musician and bandleader.

A native of East Tennessee, Lawson began his career as a sideman for Jimmy Martin and J.D. Crowe. He then spent eight years as a member of the progressive bluegrass band, the Country Gentlemen.

Lawson established his own band, Quicksilver, in 1979. Apart from his high-spirited traditional bluegrass, Lawson also specialized in adapting gospel quartet music, an art form that netted him and his band numerous awards.

Smithsonian Institution archivist Jeff Place commended Ralph Rinzler, who died in 1994, to the Hall of Fame. A folk music collector and musician, Rinzler “brought bluegrass into the folk music world,” Place said.

The Passaic, N.J., native “discovered” Doc Watson, who was playing the purist-despised electric guitar when he first met him. Rinzler went on to manage Watson and Bill Monroe, introducing both to college audiences. He worked with Carlton Haney in organizing the first bluegrass festival, which was staged in 1965 in Fincastle, Va., and was for three years a board member of the Newport Folk Festival.

Noting that the Ryman Auditorium witnessed the birth of bluegrass music when Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs first appeared on its stage in 1945 as members of Bill Monroe’s band, Place said “This place was the temple for Ralph Rinzler.”

Dailey & Vincent dazzled the crowd — and earned themselves a standing ovation — with an a cappella rendering of the old stentorian hymn, “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder.” Clearly designed for vocal showoffs, it was the musical highpoint of the evening.

As Dailey & Vincent sang, a curtain descended halfway back on the stage. This movement set the scene for the evening’s finale, the tribute to Scruggs.

After the final awards were announced, Steve Martin came to the stage to explain Scruggs’ place in the musical world.

“Before him,” Martin said, “no one played the banjo like him. After him, everyone did — or tried to. . . . He was the greatest and most influential banjo player who ever lived.”

While he was speaking, 10-year-old Jonny Mizzone and the Sleepy Man Banjo Boys took their places in front of the curtain. And when he finished, they ripped into Scruggs’ signature tune, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.”

Then the curtain raised on most of the musicians who had played during the evening — and many who hadn’t, including Scruggs’ sons, Randy and Gary. They all joined in the song.

Hosts Lewis and McCoury, along with J.D. Crowe and Sam Bush, then stepped forward to lead the band in “That Little Girl of Mine in Tennessee.” With that, the show was over.

The two-and-a-half-hour production was broadcast live on Sirius XM Satellite Radio and WSM-AM. For the first time, it was also streamed in its entirety over the Internet.

Here is the complete list of winners:

IBMA Hall of Fame: Doyle Lawson, Ralph Rinzler

Entertainer: The Gibson Brothers

Emerging Artist: Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers

Female Vocalist: Dale Ann Bradley

Male Vocalist: Russell Moore

Album:The Heart of a Song, Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice, produced by Wes Easter and Ramblers Choice for Rebel Records